Sanctuary Saga

Chapter 5

After a much needed rest the party is summoned to the The Auditorium of the Eight to find out their next mission. They are told that Traveler Cyrus Cainon and 8 City Guardsmen left two and a half week prior with the mission to investigate a cave the Elders had reason to believe may house a cache of silver. Their mission is to first find the Traveler and his group and second to find if there is any silver in the cave. The Elders choose Argus to lead the mission.

The Elders also inform the group that the Stone Man fortress that they discovered and defended from attack has been named “Rocor’s Rest” after the Centaur that died helping to defend it.

Later that day the party meets three of the City Guardsmen that will accompany them on their mission. Their names are Trullo, Miken and Drogish. Argus is informed that Miken is romantically involved with one of the guards that accompanied Cyrus, an Elven woman named Nyssa.

After meeting the guards and gearing up the party leaves Sanctuary and heads north west. Miken knows the way to the cave as he’s hunted in that area before.

On the third day out of Sanctuary shortly after starting out in the morning the group enters a mountain pass and finds a body lying in the snow. It’s identified as Nyssa, her wounds are on her back and legs and tracks lead the party to believe she was attacked by a pack of wolves. They find that she is wearing a steel breastplate that looks too small for her and is carrying a backpack. Miken is told of the body and asks for some time with her. Afterwards he returns to the group and hands Argus a small satchel that was in her backpack. Argus opens it and finds a letter from Nyssa to whoever finds her body, should she not make it. The letter details that she is carrying letters from Traveler Cyrus Cainon and they are addressed to the Elders and should be delivered to them. She goes on to ask whoever finds the letter to tell Miken he is her only love and that her last thoughts were of him.

Argus and Rucryn discuss the wisdom of opening the letters and finding out what awaits them ahead. While they are discussing opening the letters the rest of the party is attacked from the trees beside the path by an Owlbear. Working together they are able to dispatch it and even gut and clean it for that night’s meal. Argus and Rucryn decide it’s in the party’s best interest to open and read Cyrus’s letters. They send away the Guardsmen and read them.

The letters reveal that Cyrus’s party found the cave and fought against giant spiders but were then ambushed by creatures the party calls “Gray Gnomes” who have grayish blue skin, pupiless eyes and tattoos on their faces. The creatures are able to call forth a magical darkness and did so killing or injuring most of Cyrus’s party. After that encounter Cyrus found a huge room filled to the ceiling with silver bars. But it was being guarded by a very large man made of stone, like the one Alidana encountered beneath Rocor’s Rest. The Stone Man was able to kill all but two of Cyrus’s remaining party. They retreated and vowed to return the next day to recover the bodies of the fallen and return to Sanctuary. Nyssa’s letter tells of that last day recovering the bodies and being ambushed again by the Gray Gnomes who took Cyrus prisoner and left Eustas and Nyssa for dead.

The next day the party finds the cave and ventures in where they find a room with a group of dead giant spiders in it just as Cyrus had described it. They then explore the cave system until they find what Cyrus described as a hole in the ground with a rudimentary ladder descending into a hallway. The hallway leads to an area of well cut walls and floors, unlike the roughly cut tunnels above.

As they explore the new floor they find a room with an open stone door and peering inside find the mutilated body of Eustas (One of Cyrus’s men) on the floor dead. They quickly realize this is the Silver room that Cyrus described. They are then faced with a man made entirely of stone who stands roughly nine feet tall and is badly wounded with various weapons coming out of him or stuck to him. He attacks the party and manages to kill Trullo but the remaining party are able to kill him.

Argus explores the room and finds a score of shelves each housing over 100 bars of silver. The cabinets reach to the ceiling some twenty feet over head, while exploring he also finds a gigantic sarcophagus with writing like the Stone Man writing that was found at Rocor’s Rest on the lid. He reports back to the party and they move on to explore the rest of the structure.

They happen into another gigantic room with a throne at one end where they see a group of Gray Gnomes that look to be harassing a human man in front of a large stone door. Upon closer inspection it is found to be Cyrus Cainon and the Gray Gnomes seem to be trying to get him to open the stone door. The group attacks the Gnomes and manage to kill 3 of the 5 before one takes Cyrus by the hair and threatens to slit his throat if they are not left alone. Alidana takes aim with her bow and fires and arrow at the Gray Gnome holding Cyrus. The arrow misses the Gnome but hits Cyrus in the shoulder dropping him to the ground. The party then charges the remaining two Gnomes and manage to slay them.

Cyrus is healed and relates that the Gnomes had taken him hostage and forced him to try and figure out the riddle of the door which consists of three concentric stone circles with various words engraved in them in the same language as the sarcophagus. Aranel and Argus are able to decypher the script to find that the outer most ring has the words: Seek, Find, Journey, Attack, Fortitude, Shelter and Defend in it.

The next ring has the words: Silver, Gold, Platinum, Mithril, Iron, Copper and Bronze in it.

The third and smallest ring has the words: Riches, Power, Weapon and Magic.

There is then a small piece of stone in the very center with three small holes in it.

The party has decided to stay and try to figure out the riddle of the door.